Hi, Welcome to Power the Network.
I'm your host, Tim Locker, vice president of Broadband here at CBM.
Today we're going to continue our conversation with Jason Johns, vice president of construction for Gateway Fiber.
Uh, let's just get right back into and follow up where we left off.
So what's important in your relationships?
You know, for me, you know, honesty is is critical, right.
You know, as a sales guy, obviously you want people to trust you.
You know, you're not going to sell every little trinket that comes out.
You have to believe in it and and ultimately we want to help you.
Right, So what what's important on your end of the equation, Well, it's transparency, which which is which is is a form of honesty, right.
I really, I really believe that whoever you're dealing with, you just have to have that be transparent in what you're trying to accomplish, the conversations you're trying to have some of the more difficult conversations, you know, but that's okay, you know, and you know in the business world you have to be able to have those difficult conversations and move on.
But you know, now, do you find do you find it's easier to have those conversations now later in your career, maybe more mature than younger.
Oh absolutely, I mean yeah, I mean I think I think it's understanding the impact of those conversations and how to attack it.
You know.
I can remember conversations where I was on the other end of it.
Yeah, you know, and it wasn't very tactful, you know, and you really didn't understand what they're trying to tell you.
So when you have conversations that are difficult, you're really wanting to make sure that you know who you're speaking with understands the point, understands the alarity.
Yeah, and there's no you know, there's no confusion on why.
Hopefully you've had you've you've been you know, if it's an internal person for instance, hopefully you've been coaching as a leader, you're coaching along the way, so it's it's it's not a surprise if you have something like that, you know, it's it gets a little more difficult when it's a vendor or it's a municipality or something like that.
You know.
But but but you just you just move forward.
I mean, you've got to be a professional.
So you guys are obviously expanding rapidly.
You know, we hear in the industry a lot.
You know, good workers are hard to find, labor shortages are Are you struggling with finding enough people to feel these uh new opportunities with your company?
I think we're struggling with finding the right people.
Okay, yeah, I mean there's there's there's there's a lot of people that apply for our positions.
But it's important to hire the right person as well.
So struggling to find the right person.
You know, what is that right person?
How does that fit to your culture?
Well, I think when you're hiring it, it's important not to get you know, wrapped around the actule of you know, do they have this work experience, do they have all the you know, are they checking all these boxes that are are typically on a on a a job hosting.
That's important, don't get me wrong.
I mean, but but sometimes it's about finding that person that that you that has the ability to learn, that that has the ability to fit into what the rest of the team has already built, you know, fit into our culture, fil fit into you know.
You know, we we got a customer first mentality.
We we you know, make sure that they can communicate and they they are they're honest people and they can grow within it.
So so sometimes it's it's I don't want to say it's less about but it's not.
You know, we don't want to overweight you know, their job experiences or or or or where they've been, Well that experience might cause that same well I've done it this way mentality.
And you know I tell my son all the time too, it's about being coachable, you know, open your mind, be willing to learn, do new things.
You know, at no matter what level of the company you're at, whether you're starting from the ground up or you're at the top of the organization, you still have to be coachable and try to learn new things.
Yeah, And I mean we had a situation, uh recently where we were interviewing for a position and that position actually went away and there was one person that interviewed for it, and it's like, we got to have this person on our team.
I mean, we'll find a place for we find the right person, We're going to put them in the right spot.
This is someone that wants to to be what Gateway Fiber, This is someone the Gayway Fiber wants.
So we'll find a place.
So we ended up hiring that person and thriving today.
Yeah, and we call that, you know, having people on the bench.
So you know, every one of us within the company, you know, whether we're on the leadership team or not, we we continually keep our eyes open and we identify the right people.
And so when those voids come available, then you know we have that bench to go to, you know, to put someone into that slot.
So and you mentioned customer first mentality.
You know, the technicians really in a company like yours, the folks that are going to the homes and dealing with your actual end user customers, do you train them?
What do you do to make sure that you know, they have to know that they're the voice of the company.
They have a lot more power with the customer than a lot of times what they want to believe.
So what do you do to train those folks to really honestly take care of that customer first mentality?
Well, and in our text, do a fantastic job.
I mean, you know, you know, being Gateway employees, uh, you know, they understand the impacts they have when you walk into someone's home.
I mean we all have it.
I mean when someone walks into our home, right and so so they understand it.
And there is there is a training program ongoing.
You just can't train someone one time and be like, all right, you know, you got your certificate.
It's an ongoing mentality.
And and but it's less about I shouldn't say it's less about training.
It's you got to train them.
But then the whole company has to live it.
You know, from a construction perspective, we go into these communities and we tear up I mean you can.
I mean you got drills everywhere, you got condu you got handholes everything over those places.
And so we're honest with them.
We're honest with the cities.
Hey, we're gonna be it's gonna be, you know, a mess.
And and and we have you know, but those those those houses that we're building on are potential customers.
So I mean, so even our our crews are are educated and trained and held accountable to making sure that you know, they follow best practices, they respond to issues in a timely manner.
You know, it's it's up and down the whole organization.
Even though you're out there making a mess of things, you still got to be respectful and cognizant uh and willing to Hey.
The worst thing that as a homeowner and just you know, I'm a I'm a grass guy.
Well you tear up my grass.
I mean, we're gonna we're gonna have to talk, right, you know, there's I'm sure there's a bunch of guys out there that are that way.
Well, and we're gonna tear up your grass, right, I mean.
And but the flip side is from from a homeowner perspective, they just want to talk to someone.
The worst thing you can do is ignore them, you know, they they send a complaining We have we have a great uh way.
There's all sorts of ways that you can communicate with us that that there's a construction issue, you know, and our customer service team funnels those to the construction side so that we can address.
But you know, the things that I've noticed, even as a homeowner myself, is when I have an issue and then no one calls me.
Yeah you know.
So so we have a we have a robust system of you know, hey, we will get back to you within twenty four hours.
We will we will try to rectify it within five business days.
Sometimes the construction is not you know possible, but we we really want to serve that customer, uh, that homeowner, because it's a potential customer of ours.
Yeah, and that's a great philosophy.
You know.
I've been on construction crews years ago too, and I remember those days when you know, somebody would walk up and you're right, they just they just they're interested, they want to talk.
What do you what are you doing?
You know, what's going on?
So uh yeah, I think you're right.
That's you have to look at those things as an opportunity, yep, to impact that market.
Even though you might be tearing stuff up and you know there's mud all over, it's still an opportunity to touch a customer in a positive way.
Well yeah, and you know, and if they have a negative experience, it's just wildfire.
It's on Facebook, it's on Twitter, you know, and it's like, you know, now you had a small issue that you could have resolved.
It's just you know, just maybe by being nice.
Yeah yeah, and now it's a blaze and now you're having to do damage control.
And we don't want to be in that position.
All right, real quick, let me tell you a little bit about what we do here at CBM.
So, we're a manufacturers rep located here in the Midwest.
We work in three different vertical markets, utility space, we work in communications, and also commercial industrial markets.
We've been in business since nineteen sixty been an employee owned eShop since nineteen eighty eight.
We really value that employee ownership our organization and I think it brings a lot to UH to value our manufacturers as well.
So if we can be of any service to you and help you in your next project, or if you're a manufacturer looking for expert representation, feel free to reach out to us here at CBM at cbmrep dot com.
So talking about the homeowner's perspective or the customer's perspective, uh, you know what sets Gateway Fiber apart?
Why should they Why should they choose you?
Why should they choose us?
A great question?
Well, you know, hopefully, hopefully because we are providing a better service and we do.
I mean, you know, from a fiber perspective.
We we firmly believe that you know, fiber to the home is better than you know your cable, your DSL.
But with that too, we also feel like you know, our customer service is is top top of the industry.
Yeah, you know, when you have an there's a thing called net promoter score, and we're we're historically at the very top of the at you know, uh market share for that.
We talked a little bit about uh, you know, getting the right people on board with your company, but in a little bit about the industry as a whole.
You know, obviously the telecommunications industry is is a great place to be.
Uh.
Workforce development has been a hot topic.
Talk a little bit to the kid coming out of high school or the kid just coming out of college.
Uh, what kind of opportunities are there for you know, someone just starting into this industry and why would they want to get into it?
Well, I think, I think, I think the industry is growing and it's going.
It's it's a great place for whether whether you're coming out of high school or college to get into.
There's there's different there's different avenues.
We've been hitting up colleges, giving giving talks, giving you know, career development uh speeches about you know what those opportunities are.
We're starting to think about doing an intern ship program as well, and I know a lot of other companies have already doing that, which is a fantastic way for college kids for that matter, to dip their toe in here to see if they like it from from that high school kid.
You know, there's our contractors are really starved for good workers.
You know, there is a lot of the technical schools are growing exponentially now, and you know, most of them have a placement rates that like ninety eight percent if you like State Technical College and whatnot.
And and there's a it's almost like a rush to get this student.
So if you're a high school kid out there and looking for you know, doesn't doesn't want to go to college, just just wants to look at that get into his his or her career path sooner.
Yeah, you know, that technical school you know, is a great opportunity for him.
Okay, Now what about say you've got a kid that's more business minded.
Do you have to start, you know and work your way up through these through this industry or you know, what's what's somebody like that going to have to do differently?
Well, I think I think in all, I don't know, I don't know if you have to, I think I think the easiest way is I mean, there's always an interesting certainly helps to have the background and the knowledge, Well you have to get the background and the knowledge to have it right.
So there's got to be an entry point.
And I think what you see from from uh from is s p s right now is is our ability to identify those qualities and someone to give them those opportunities.
So there's a there's a variety of ways to get into it.
If you I think that that the biggest one of the biggest opportunities right now is probably on our on our vendor side, on our construction vendor side, because I mean, you know, if you look at some of the forecasted growth rates from a fiber to the home perspective, but with bead funding coming out pretty soon, I mean the all of us I sps are going to be you know, you're going to be bargaining for those contractors to get the work done.
Well yeah, and there's there's not there's just not enough, not enough.
There's just not enough of them right now, and so their growth, you know, their growth right now is going to be key to our success.
Yeah.
Well and yeah, so when it comes to the bead funding, you mentioned that the shortage of contractors, the shortage of workers, are we really going to be able to hit these targets.
Uh, when the money starts coming out and we're going to build, well, I can tell I Gateway fiber will hit the targets.
I mean how about that.
You know, whatever we get, we will we will hit ours.
But from from an over arching perspective, it is it is pretty aggressive.
I mean, you know, we obviously this industry is gonna see, you know, in the next few years, something that we've probably never seen before.
So it's going to be interesting, uh, you know, just to see what the future brings and how we get through it.
Well, it's gonna be exciting, right, I mean, you know, fiber fiber to the home, fiber to the to the business is you know that next you know evolution.
You know, it kind of reminds me of you know when I when I, you know, learned about you know, the highway system.
You know, it just revolution, revolution, you know, you know, how we how we operate, how we went, how we drove or commuted from city to city.
And that's what this fiber you know, fiber to the home is gonna do.
And that's what bead's gonna do as well.
You know, you get to that rural you know person that now can have high speed internet, that can that can maybe work from home, that can maybe have schooling from home, and that type of opportunity, and it's gonna be fantastic.
Yeah, it's certainly gonna be great for all of us.
So what's one assumption that people make about your job that you would disagree with that's boring?
How about that?
Uh?
It's never the same?
Uh, Like no one day is the same.
So, you know, I think for me personally, if you're if you're talking about you know, uh, Jason John's the gateway is that?
How can I say it that the items that we deal with on a day to day basis sometimes are very granular in scale, and sometimes are you know that thirty thousand foot you know, you know, so we're dealing with What I mean by that is, you know, we're looking at our twenty twenty four you know budget or twenty twenty four forecasts, and you know that is kind of this you know, big umbrella that we're dealing with.
And at the same time, we're you know, making phone calls to the city engineer to say, hey, do I have this permit?
You know, you know all of it.
Everyone leans in, you know, in at Gateway and within my organization to make sure that we're hitting our targets and our numbers.
But it's a hell of a lot of fun.
I can tell you that that's awesome.
Is this a new position within Gateway or did you, you know, assume somebody else's role.
No, I think through the growth of Gateway, this the VP of Construction came about just because of the growth.
Okay, yep, so you're you wouldn't have a predecessor to that maybe did something different than you.
You're the well, I mean they were doing it before, you know.
I think I think just from a title perspective that I'm the first, but I mean they were obviously working uh you know uh before.
I mean, yeah, okay, yeah, what what do you think the future holds?
What's the what's the next few years look like?
Well, the next few years, well, my daughter just got a driver's license.
Oh so that that's the immediate nixt few years.
But for for for me and Gateway, it's really expansion.
We're we're excited.
I mean, you know, we've announced our next market in Minnesota.
We have a couple of others that we're evaluating, and it's really just that that that race, you know, it's like a five or ten year race, is what it's going to come down to.
And we want to identify good markets with uh good and you know, customers and and that we can support and grow be part of their community.
I mean, that's a big thing for us.
We're just not we just don't want to be an ISP.
We want to be part of your community, part of the community, and that's what people want, and that's that's how you build those relationships.
Uh.
And you know, stayd the test the time.
Obviously, you want the organization to last a long time, and that's what it's all about, but certainly exciting times.
Uh.
You know, I can't thank you enough for joining us.
It's been a great conversation.
Appreciate your time, and thank you so much.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Ye, thank you.
I hope you enjoyed our conversation with Jason today as much as I did.
I really value his perspective and his expertise uh in the field.
I think it's awesome that we can share some of these challenges that we face, you know, providing broadband across the country.
If you need expert advice on a project or looking for representation from an expert sales force, reach out to us here at CBM at cbmrep dot com.
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